1876.] quain's elements of anatomy. 161

iDavt ^cconif.

REVIEWS.

Quant's Elements of Anatomy. Eighth Edition. Edited by William Sharpey, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. L. and E., Emeritus Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in University College, London ; Allen Thomson, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. L. and E., Professor of Anatomy in the University of Glasgow; and Edward Albert Schafer, Assistant Professor of Physiology in University College, London. In two volumes. London: Longmans, Green, and Co: 1876.

The somewhat conflicting requirements to be fulfilled in writing a book containing the elements of anatomy for general use make the work one of no ordinary difficulty. Indeed, it is a work that can only be successfully undertaken by men possessing the breadth of view given by a wide range of knowledge, together with the ability to place facts and deductions vividly and exactly before the reader, and an intimate acquaintance with the various wants of the persons to be instructed. Dogmatic statements and diagramatic drawings are needed to arrest the attention and impress the memory of the beginner, while facts must be presented in such an aspect as may show their mutual connexion and bearings in the science of anatomy. The great majority of readers look at anatomy merely in relation to medicine and surgery, and for these careful provision is demanded. Another important class ask for such a conspectus of the science as may exhibit its present position, and may lead the student to that stage at which he emerges ex statu puptllare and betakes himself to original monographs or the study of comparative anatomy. For nearly half a century, Quain's Anatomy has main- tained a high place, and now that the eighth edition appears, after a lapse of nine years from the issue of the last, we are glad ?to find that it is the best and most complete text-book of anatomy in the English language, and one of which British anatomists may be proud. The recent character of much of the information is a remarkable feature. We were not a little astonished to find digests of memoirs which only appeared when part at least of the book must have been in the press. This is doubtless due to the sub-

division of the work among so many able editors. The alterations in

this edition begin with the titlepage, where the name of Dr Cleland of Galway is replaced by that of Mr Schafer of University College. Not only has the book been revised in the most elaborate way, and new matter introduced to bring it up to the existing state of anatomical science, but the distribution of the matter between the two volumes has been altered.

VOL. XXII.?NO. II. x

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The first now contains the Descriptive Anatomy of the Bones, Joints, Muscles, Vessels, and Nerves; and it also includes the substance of the chapter on Surgical Anatomy which appeared in former editions, but which is now incorporated with the account of the muscles and vessels. The whole of this volume has been edited by Dr Thomson, in association with Mr D. N. Knox, Demon- strator of Anatomy in the University of Glasgow, and assisted by Mr H. Clarke in the description of the Bloodvessels, and by Dr Gowers in that of the Cranial Nerves. There is considerable change and some amplification in the account of the Bones and Muscles, but we must confess to considerable disappointment with the chapter on the Bones. References to Morphology and Homology are banished to separate sections, where the views of Flower, Parker, Huxley, Goodsir, Owen, Gegenbaur, etc., are cleverly stated and pitted against each other, while the editor carefully abstains from com- mitting himself to anything. Surely at this date it might be admitted that the innominate bone consists of three parts, each

having the same fundamental form of a three-sided prismatic rod; and would not a description founded upon such morphological considerations be endowed with ease and interest in the eye? of the learner? Such excess of caution has rendered the description of some of the most interesting bones only a degree better than those dreary catalogues of commonplaces, which in some other works on anatomy excite the disgust of the student. A very serious omission is the want of any mention of the internal

structure and arrangement of the cancellated tissue of the various bones?a subject which is so important, from a practical point of view, as determining the lines of greatest or least resistance to force. The illustrations to this chapter are the old flat woodcuts, which may possibly adorn the pages, but can hardly serve any other purpose. Notwithstanding their abundance, the beginner must have recourse to a teacher at every step, or possess himself of some such work as Holden's Osteology.

In the chapter on the Muscles, varieties have been more fully noticed than formerly, and there are some interesting sections on the morphology of muscles, founded on the writings of Huxley, Mivart, Rolleston, Humphrey, etc. The account of the cranial nerves has profited by Dr Gower's revision. The bloodvessels and nerves are described in the first volume apart from the heart and brain, for which the second volume must be consulted?an arrangement which disturbs our sense of the fitness of things, and reminds us of the decapitated St Vincent walking about with his head under his arm. After deducting the table of confessed errata, it is consoling for ordinary folk to observe, that one with such a reputation for caution and exactitude as Dr Thomson, and possessing the aid of sharp-eyed assistants, fails to purge the book of printer's errors, and may even occasionally indulge in such dark sentences as the following:? " The inner lateral fibres arise from the line running from the

187(3.] QUAIN'S ELEMENTS OF ANATOMY. 163

anterior inter-trochanteric line in front of the small trochanter to

join the inner line leading to the linea aspera, from the lower half of that inner line, from the inner lip of the linea aspera, and from the internal inter-muscular septum. The line of origin of the outer lateral fibres runs from the anterior inter-trochanteric line obliquely across the front of, and down the outer surface of the shaft of the femur, immediately in front of, and closely connected with the origin of the vastus externus." The second volume opens with Dr Sharpey's classic chapter on

General Anatomy, extending to 238 pages. This was published separately eighteen months ago, and therefore requires only brief notice now. We may refer specially to the description of the structure of bone and serous membrane, and the origin of the lymphatics, as containing striking novelties, for which we are indebted to Klein, Recklinghausen, etc. The illustrations are excellent. The description of the arrangement of the muscular fibres of the heart is founded on an entirely fresh investigation, undertaken with the co-operation of Mr F. J. Davies, of Univer- sity College, and differs altogether from that of Pettigrew. Of the chapters on the anatomy of the other thoracic, abdominal, and pelvic organs, time fails us to say more than that they are all improved, especially in the microscopic anatomy. The researches of Dr James Foulis on the Development of the Ova and Structure of the Ovary, published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions for 1875, have been freely abstracted in the account of the ovaries and development. The account of the intimate structure of the brain and spinal cord has undergone considerable alteration at the hands of Dr W. R. Gowers, to bring it into accordance with modern views; and the exterior of the cerebrum has been described in the modern way, following Gratiolet. We are both surprised and disappointed to find no information given which might help in localizing the position of the fissures and convolutions upon the surface of the skull. Even had the editors objected to the trouble of the trifling investigation needed to gain information so important, they might have availed themselves of the papers by Turner on this subject, in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology for 1874 and 1875. Meynert's terminology is briefly described in an appendix by itself. The chapters on the Organs of the Senses are capital pieces of description, thoroughly revised and splendidly illustrated. This volume concludes with a new feature, in the shape of a chapter by Dr Allen Thomson on Embryology or Development of the Foetus and its Organs, including the formation of the Membranes and Placenta. It occupies 154 pages, and not

only brings together into one place the special history of the development of the several organs of the body, which in previous editions was distributed throughout the work, but contains much additional new matter. Coming from such a competent pen as that of Dr Thomson, dealing with a favourite subject, we are not

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surprised to find that this is a remarkably clear and instructive exposition. It contains the substance of the most recent publica- tions, and we would draw special attention to the account of the placenta and uterine glands. It only remains for us to say that each volume is furnished with a very copious index as well as a table of contents, and that the printing and " get up

" of the book are such as they ought to be.